Recommended by Dave Osmundsen

Two people who are stuck in life have a chance encounter in the woods. Over the course of this lovey twenty-minute play, Nell and Luke attempt to recapture a time in their lives when they were happier, freer, and didn’t have as much to worry about—something a lot of us are feeling right now! A touching play that comes to a lovely conclusion as these two characters are about to forge a new path together.

We’ve seen many post-apocalyptic plays. But not many set specifically at Christmas! Michael C. O’Day constructs a vividly austere and Orwellian world with its own carefully crafted mythology. This play is a masterclass in developing suspense. I can’t think of many other plays that have kept my on tenterhooks over such an extended period of time. Beyond the intriguing setting and dynamic characters, this is a play about how the stories we tell and are told can hurt and heal us. Fantastic work!

A powerful, nuanced, and captivating piece that explores the harmful messages we get from the religion we’re raised with and the art we consume. Miller’s examination of problematic portrayals of women in Golden Age musicals is potent, but it’s her confession on partaking in a cover-up of a sexual assault that is especially harrowing. This is one of the bravest confessional plays I’ve ever read, and it’s the kind of work we need in the American theatre right now. Bravo!

Wow! Complex questions about love vs. duty, the cost of activism, and our responsibility to our planet and to each other are woven through this compelling and haunting family drama. The playwright also builds a vivid world where the environment is on the brink. I look forward to this play’s future. Fantastic work!

Diabolical elves, an evil overlord named Santa Claus, a wine-drunk Mrs. Claus, and of course Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. This raucous and raunchy mashup of Macbeth and Santa Claus is delightfully gruesome, demented, and hilarious. Perfect for college and student groups looking for something quite different for their holiday slot.

Can we grieve for someone we never knew? What do we do with our tragic family legacies? How do we cope? In this brief but powerful play, Probst weaves together multiple narrative strands to tell a story of grief, guilt, and moving on. Gorgeously written and deeply compassionate.

Intimate and epic, this gorgeous play explores how time and space factor into the life of a seemingly ordinary couple. Breznitsky imbues both characters in this two-hander with dreams and desires, and one comes to understand and empathize with both of them. The non-linearity of the narrative is masterfully executed, allowing the audience to feel how time catches up with these characters through snippets and snatches of echoed dialogue. Ultimately, the play is a moving meditation on love and dreams, and how we return to those we love after achieving our greatest goals. Brilliant work!

I saw a reading of this play at the Valdez
Theatre Conference. This is an incredibly powerful, beautifully plotted, and emotionally resonant script that explores classism, hypocrisy, parenting, and other themes with clarity and a healthy dose of humor. Colleen is one of the most compelling and compels characters I’ve seen in a contemporary play, and her relationship with her daughter is incredible moving and beautiful. Highly recommended!

A brilliantly unsettling yet deeply compassionate play about friendship, grief, and the horrors that await us in both dreams and reality. Smith has created a beautiful friendship between Lily and Joy, and despite the play’s brevity, you get a full sense of their relationship dynamic. The horror elements are beautifully executed, and the play succeeds in suspending the audience somewhere between reality and fantasy, to the point that you don’t always know where you are, creating a feeling of delightful unease. Fantastic work!

“Welcome to Keene, New Hampshire” takes a page from Thornton Wilder’s seminal play “Our Town” and transports us to a real-life small town in Southern New Hampshire. However, Polak’s play goes deeper to explore wider social issues, such as alt-right movements, gun violence, the opioid epidemic, and trans identity, each treated with the right amount of weight and attention. This play is also rife with snarky humor and poignant musings about our place in the universe. A messy play that doesn’t offer easy answers and allows the audience to contemplate life itself. Wonderful work!